The Buzz

By KEITH NIEBUHR
Published October 30, 2005

THUMBS UP

Gary Megson, manager of the Nottingham Forest soccer club in England, punished his underperforming players recently by making them face disgruntled fans in the locker room. Had the Devil Rays done something like that last year, the result might have resembled the angry villagers scene in Frankenstein.

THUMBS DOWN

60 Minutes. Way to tank an interview, gang. The television show's one-on-one interview with Michael Jordan was as weak as it gets. Instead of learning something new about Jordan, we got to watch him schooling a bunch of middle-aged wannabes in a game of pickup.

VOICES CARRY

"Just like that, with a tumble and a toss by Juan Uribe, as if 88 years never passed, so ended a city's blind spot, its black hole, its burden of time, an agonizing void that created an inferiority complex in a place inferior to none. What Chicago ever did to suffer almost a century of baseball hopelessness, you'll have to ask the evil spirits or Mrs. O'Leary's cow. But finally, America's most unfulfilled baseball town has the same prize as Boston and, um, Phoenix and Miami.

"That would be a 30-pound trophy, made of brass and pewter, with pretty flags.

"Behold the city's most special baseball season of our time - of all time, really. Wrap yourself in glory that might not match the civic totality of the 1985 Bears and the Bulls dynasty, but certainly tops it in South Side precincts. Wednesday night, the White Sox won the friggin' World Series. Not only is this tantamount to sushi bars replacing deep-dish parlors, this also has legions of grown men crying, wishing their fathers and grandfathers could see what the impossible looks like."